1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to communication systems and in particular to communication systems incorporating capabilities to provide continuity of real time action information among a plurality of session clients.
2. Description of the Related Art
An auction is the buying and selling of property through open public bidding. Typically, potential purchasers make a succession of increasing bids or offers until the auctioneer accepts the highest (and final) bid. At a Dutch auction, by contrast, the seller offers property at successively lower prices until one of his offers is accepted or until the price drops so low as to force the withdrawal of the offered property. Prospective buyers are usually allowed to examine auction items beforehand, and sellers can set a minimum price below which the property will not be sold. Auctions are important in the agricultural markets of many countries, permitting the rapid sale of perishable goods. Other items often sold at auction include artwork and antiques, secondhand goods, and farms and buildings repossessed by banks or the government. Auction selling is also employed on stock and commodity exchanges.
Historically, potential buyers meet at a geographical location to participate in an auction. This method tends to limit the number of potential buyers to the available population that are physically near the geographical location of the auction. Potential buyers make the conscious decision to attend an auction after receiving advertisement by word of mouth or via various media channels such as the newspaper. Potential buyers show up prior to the auction start time and inspect potential items to bid on. As the auction starts, one item at a time is auctioned off through a person called the auctioneer. The auction usually lasts for a brief part of the day with the financial transactions between each buyer and seller being resolved before the end of the auction. Usually the auctioneer or auction house will generate revenue by receiving a percentage of the item sold or alternatively can have a flat rate for each item sold. An auction that requires physical presence at a geographical location has limits on the number of items that can be sold within an allotted time period, the number of people present in a geographical auction location, and the effects on the auction price.
Recently, the ubiquitous nature of the Internet has fueled the growth of online electronic auctions. Now a larger number of buyers can be reached as they enjoy bidding for an item in the comfort of their home or other surroundings without physically being at the geographical location of the auction. Benefits of the online auction include alleviation of the requirement to be physically at a geographical location, the potential for reaching a larger number of people through the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, capability for many items to be auctioned off at the same time, capability for the auction time to continue for several days. However, at the same time online auctions enjoy these benefits, drawbacks include lack of mutual trust between seller and buyer, need to visualize the product description and shape, and reduction of participation due to limited access to the Internet at a buyer's current location.
Online auction houses provide their services through online servers including database storage of buyer and seller profiles and auction items. The auction house provides services that allow the user to search by a particular interest, receive notification of available items of particular interest, rate or provide a trust level for buyer and seller, provide a seller with a virtual store front, maintain an overview page of items created by a buyer, receive notification in price changes for buyer and seller, create escrow account to exchange money and merchandise. Online auction houses generate revenue for operation by charging a fee based upon the percentage of the sales price, providing other services such as escrow accounts, and through selling online advertisements.
Online auction houses allow the buyer to browse items for sale by utilizing a search engine that locates particular items of interest. A buyer will usually set up a profile that is accessible by username and password and contains such items as auction interests. Notifications by electronic mail can be sent to the perspective buyer once a seller has listed an item that matches the buyer's interest. The auction house provides as part of the buyer's profile a personal storable listing that includes items they are currently bidding on, items they are following, and items they have won. The buyer can add to the list from auction items they are interested in or want to bid on.
The online auction house gives the capability to the seller to create a virtual storefront or to list items independently. The seller, like the buyer, creates a user account by supplying a username and password and contact information. The seller has the ability to create a unique motif for their virtual storefront. The seller will normally provide a description along with a picture of the item to sell and possibly a hyperlink to the manufacturer of the item that can be used to provide relative cost comparison. In addition, the seller can leave contact information so that the perspective buyer can have a dialogue with the seller. The seller, in some cases, can desire to have a minimum reserved price for an item or service. The minimum sale price is usually not made public while bidding on an item, but will be indicated in the listing information when the minimum reserved price has been reached. The seller has the ability to list all of his items within one listing of his virtual storefront.
The online auction house helps foster a sense of mutual trust by providing rating methods for both buyers and sellers. Buyer and seller ratings include such items as the number of transactions performed, the measure of performance or satisfaction, and the history information. Either a perspective buyer or a seller can enter these ratings. Based upon past performance or execution, a buyer or seller can begin to realize a feeling of trust without ever meeting the person they are selling to or buying from. In addition, the online auction house will provide escrow services to the buyer and/or seller. The auction house will typically hold the form of payment, until the buyer receives the item or service. Buyers and sellers with limited history or poor performance typically use the escrow service. One of the many benefits of having a superior seller's rating is that the seller can create brand or seller loyalty based on past auction. As with other financial business transactions there are some bidders that have either fraudulent behaviors or dislikes toward a certain seller. A seller can utilize the blacklist service to deny a potential fraudulent or unhappy buyer from participating in any of the seller's online auctions.
A seller who places an item up for auction will also include the duration of the auction. Typically, the activity on an auction will start out slow with the activity reaching the apex at the very end of the auction. A desiring bidder will soon realize that they must have online bidding presence toward the end of the auction. The bidder for an item up for auction has the option to either manually participate in the bidding process or to utilize the online auction house's automated bidding mechanism. The manual process is usually the preferred method where the bidder will follow the online bidding history and update their bid as needed to retain the highest bid price up to the highest price the bidder is willing to offer. As the close of the auction nears, the bidder will actively compete with other buyers to retain the highest bid price. As a compliment to the manual bid process, the online auction house typically provides an automated bidding agent that acts on the behalf of the buyer whether are not they are physically connected to the online auction. The buyer will select the item to bid and enter their starting bid price along with a maximum bid price that they are willing to pay for that item or service. The buyer's maximum bid price is not visible to other users within the online auction house. The agent, unlike the buyer, always knows the minimum reserved price, if any, set by the seller and will increment the bid price to the minimum reserved price if this price is within the buyer's maximum bid price. As part of the buyer's bidding process, notification of events relating to the auction item(s) are sent to the buyer typically through electronic mail. The types of events in which the buyer will be notified by the online auction house include no longer being the highest bidder, the end of auction results (winning bid), and the remaining time on auction.
Without the aid of an online agent, a buyer will receive the auction item or service if he/she is the highest bidder and has an active presence toward the end of the auction. Unfortunately, the expiration time of the auction does not always coincide with the buyer's schedule of daily activities. The buyer can have to leave an online auction to perform other daily duties and as result can miss the competitive bidding at the end of the auction.
Gambling is the act of a person wagering against an opposing person(s) as to the outcome of an event. Many people enjoy the traditional forms of gambling such as boxing, horse and dog racing, and sporting events such as football, basketball, soccer, baseball and hockey. These types of gambling events are not usually paused or suspended to be completed at a later time and are referred to as real time gambling events. Types of gambling events that can be suspended or delayed to a later time are card games and slot machines.
Traditionally, a bet or a wager is placed with a bookkeeper on the outcome of an event. The bookkeeper will generate revenue by charging a percentage of proceeds earned by a gambling participant. In addition, the bookkeeper will track the wagers placed by the participants and the progress of the gambling event itself. Usually the bookkeeper will vary the odds of the event as to balance or bring equality to the gambling event. For example, a soccer team can be given two goals to their final score, since the opposing soccer team is viewed to be better than them by two goals.
During a gambling event, odds for the outcome can change to reflect a new equality between participants, therefore, gambling participants will benefit by being able to receive and act upon the new odds in real time. In addition, late breaking news prior and during a gambling event can change the outcome of the gambling event, thereby creating a need for the gambling participant to be able to receive and act upon this information. Likewise, the history surrounding a gambling event can be beneficial to a participant that is able to receive and act upon this information in real time.
Technological advances in the Internet now provide the capability for online gambling to utilize an Internet server to perform the roll of bookkeeper. Some of the advantages of online gambling are providing for online gamblers to view the latest changes in odds, easier tracking of monies won/lost, social/language barriers are easier to overcome while providing a safe surrounding environment, gambling participants can learn through free practice sessions at their own speed, and electronic commerce easies collection problems. Some potential disadvantages in the technology advancements of online gambling are the potential for anonymous money laundering, the complexity of distribution of winnings, the increased risk of children gaining access to gambling sites, and the increased risk of a gambler becoming engrossed in the gambling event.
Online sessions such as online auctions and online gambling include data that is time and action sensitive, having little or no value after the auction or gambling time has expired. Further, online sessions can continue for several days. Although the online session participant benefits from staying informed and involved, it is difficult to remain available to the fixed session client monitoring the online session.
Recently, to meet the needs of session participants who cannot remain at a fixed location and/or device having a session client, online services are providing wireless access to their services and associated Internet sites using Internet enabled wireless devices, such as cellular telephones and pagers. The Internet enabled cellular telephone, for example, can include a session client with the same functionality as a session client within a fixed device, such as a personal computer. Similarly, a pager can receive alerts relating to the status of a particular online session. One drawback of real time actionable events experienced in online auctions and gambling is that the times of the events do not always coincide with the user's preferred method of online participation.
With today's technology, when participating in an online session, in order to switch to a different session client, the account user disconnects the currently connected session client from the online server. The account user then later, at the appropriate event time, connects a second session client to the online server and logs in. Finally, the account user reinitiates each online session that was in progress on the first session client. The disadvantage of this method is the numerous manual operations required of the account user to change session clients including remembering the appropriate event time to start the new session client.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for the transferring of real time event information associated with one or more online sessions between different session clients allowing the seamless continuation of participation in the online sessions.